Frozen Planet: Capturing Life at the Poles

The Frozen Planet

"Frozen Planet," a Discovery Channel/BBC co-production, took four years to make and provides an in-depth portrait of life at the earth's poles as it has never been seen before. Here, a pod of orcas spy-hop through gaps in the ice in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. "It's just a view you're not prepared for. I mean, your heart is just pounding," filmmaker Chadden Hunter told "Nightline's" Bill Weir.

Chadden Hunter/Discovery Channel

The Frozen Planet

"Frozen Planet," a Discovery Channel/BBC co-production, took four years to make and provides an in-depth portrait of life at the earth's poles as it has never been seen before. Here, a pod of orcas spy-hop through gaps in the ice in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. "It's just a view you're not prepared for. I mean, your heart is just pounding," filmmaker Chadden Hunter told "Nightline's" Bill Weir.

Chadden Hunter/Discovery Channel

The Frozen Planet

Time-lapse cameras captured the eerie creation of underwater icicles locking in starfish on the ocean floor like a slow-motion lightening strike. This one was under sheet ice in the McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. "We're not climate-change scientists and we're not politicians. What we can go out and do is record the changes going on at the moment," filmmaker Chadden Hunter told "Nightline's" Bill Weir.

Discovery Channel

The Frozen Planet

Filmmakers captured never-before-seen phenomenons in the most difficult habitats in the world. This underwater "icefall" occurred when water fell from cliffs above the surface and created a slope of rapidly forming ice crystals in the McMurdo Sound, Antarctica."The pace of change at the moment in the polar regions is faster than it looks like it's been historically," said Chadden Hunter.

Hugh Miller/Discovery Channel

The Frozen Planet

Penguins sit on an iceberg in Antarctica. "We showed really dramatic change," said filmmaker Vanessa Berlowitz. "There's an area of ice off Antarctica that's the size of Jamaica, an ice sheet, that literally collapsed a few years ago... this is the kind of change that is going to raise global sea levels and people have to kind of acknowledge that this is happening right now."

Andy Rouse/Discovery Channel

The Frozen Planet

King Penguins wade in the icy waters of Antarctia in "Frozen Planet."

Chadden Hunter/Discovery Channel

The Frozen Planet

King penguins silhouetted at dawn in South Georgia, a tiny country off the coast of the tip of South America. Weighing up to 35lbs, king penguins are the second largest of their species. They eat small fish, mainly lantern fish and squid, and repeatedly dive to more than 100 metres to feed.

Ian McCarthy/Discovery Channel

The Frozen Planet

"Frozen Planet" filmmakers captured emperor penguins torpedoing out of the sea on their return to Antarctica to breed. These animals start to breed again as soon as the sun returns to the continent in September.

Chadden Hunter/Discovery Channel

The Frozen Planet

Gentoo penguins are masterful surfers. In "Frozen Planet," the animals were filmed in high-speed time lapses as they jumped ashore to feed their young.

Andy Rouse/naturepl.com/Discovery Channel

The Frozen Planet

Adelie penguins build their rock nests on ice floes off the coast of Cape Crozier colony, Antarctica. The problem is there are more penguins than rocks available, which can lead to territorial fights. Also their growing chicks require constant feeding, and the adults take it in turn to leave the colony to hunt for silverfish and krill.

Jeff Wilson/Discovery Channel

The Frozen Planet

A humpback whale surrounded by sea birds. "I think it's really, really important that we don't just make a beautiful coffee table book, a version, you know, a cinematic version of a coffee table book," said filmmaker Vanessa Berlowitz. "I fervently believe that before you can get people to want to protect wildlife and the natural world, they have to love it. And that's the bit that we do."

Chadden Hunter/Discovery Channel

The Frozen Planet

A mother polar bear and two cubs on pack ice, Svalbard, Norway. The "Frozen Planet" camera crew tried to maintain a distance of roughly 50 feet at all times, but this mama started to get too close. When filmmaker Vanessa Berlowtiz looked over her shoulder, she said, "there's a polar bear, literally about 10 or 15 feet away from me, just watching me, and I have never moved so fast in my life."

Jason Roberts/Discovery Channel

The Frozen Planet

A pair of 2-day-old polar bear cubs. At this age they weigh less than three pounds and are about 280 times smaller than their giganitc mother.

Discovery Channel

The Frozen Planet

Two young polar bears relax near Hudson Bay, Canada. "Frozen Planet" captured a playful and more sociable side of polar bears."The reality is the animals will adapt, they always have, to shrinking ice caps and growing ice caps. The real question is, can we?" filmmaker Vanessa Berlowitz told "Nightline's" Bill Weir.